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Page 320
king had seen the first stricken whiteness of her face. His eyes had been on her, not on Ian, whose reaction he could well predict. Alinor hoped that her expression of fear would give him pleasure and convince him she was a silly, helpless thing. Without surprise she heard the king name William, Earl of Salisbury, and William, Earl of Pembroke, as judges of the tourney, thereby removing Ian's most powerful friends from any chance of fighting in his party. She had not had any expectation that John would overlook so obvious a move, particularly when the choices would seem to prove the king's favorable intentions toward Ian. After all, choosing a man's friends to judge him could hardly be thought of as showing animosity toward him.
Twelve days, Alinor thought, I have twelve days. In that time Sir Henry could come from Kingsclere and Sir Walter from the Forstal. Probably the time was not long enough to allow Sir John to come from Mersea, but she would send out a man to summon him anyway. If Ian should come to harmAlinor drew a deep breath and held it to prevent herself from panting with fearshe would need some loyal vassals. Sir Giles was close also, but Adam and Joanna had been left with him at Iford when word of the king's arrival had come. Alinor did not wish to weaken Iford's defenses in any way, and Sir Giles' lady was not one who was capable of defending her keep. Ian's nothern vassals and his Welsh ones also were too far away to be of any help.
That depressing thought gave birth to a far more hopeful idea. There were a number of northern barons present. They were not especially friends to Ian, largely because they thought him too close and too loyal to the king, while they were well on their way to being outright rebels, but one thing was sure. They would not kill Ian from behind on the king's orders. The problem was how, in 12 days, to convince them to fight on the king's side behind his champion. Normally they would be in the opposition party. Alinor knew she might do

 
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